Former attorney Jeffrey Ritter is a busy man these days. As one of the world’s leading experts on the legal issues related to digital information and information governance, he counsels corporate clients on how to develop policies and rules for managing digital information. In this role, he has found mind mapping software to be a perfect tool for helping stakeholders to build consensus around a common set of rules for managing the lifecycle of their corporate information stores.

Ritter also finds himself in the role of a trainer lately. He and his team are about to launch the Ritter Academy (set to launch in early May) to teach his information governance strategies via e-learning to a much larger global audience – where mind mapping software also plays a central role in curriculum design as well as the delivery of the training materials.

In this fascinating two-part audio interview, Jeffrey Ritter talks first about how he began to use mind mapping software in his work, and how it plays a pivotal role in helping to design the e-learning courses that will make up his new online Ritter Academy – which will contain many hours of online courses focused on information governance – and a key instrument in delivering this course content, too.

In the second half of my interview with Ritter, which is only accessible by Mind Mapping Insider members, he dives into strategies for information governance, and how he uses mind mapping software to help diverse teams of corporate stakeholders to build consensus and improve the velocity of decision making.

Don’t miss this interview

Of all of the interviews I have conducted as part of my Mind Mapping Insider membership program, this is without a doubt the most fascinating to date. Ritter paints a compelling picture of the information needs of businesses today, and why a visual approach is quite possibly the only way for executives and managers to develop a complete picture of the information they must manage.

Why is this important? Thanks to trends like growing government regulation (such as Sarbanes-Oxley here in the States), the growth of litigation against corporations and the accelerating pace of global innovation, firms must be able to retrieve data, verify its integrity and be able to trust that it’s accurate. That means that information management isn’t just a back-office IT issue any more. Companies must have rules and policies in place to govern how data is created, how access is controlled, how integrity and accuracy is maintained, how it’s stored, and when the organization can dispose of old data. And that involves a surprisingly diverse range of stakeholders, including the legal department, IT, business development, information security, records management, compliance, the owners of the business, suppliers, contractors and more.

Mind mapping software: Bringing order out of complexity

Sound complex? It is. But Ritter has discovered that mind mapping software is a marvelous tool for cutting through this complexity and helping corporations to rationalize their disjointed information rules and policies into a cohesive structure that enables faster decision making, which in turn, helps them to profit from their vast information stores like never before. Don’t miss these fascinating interviews!

If you cannot see the link to the second half of this audio interview, that’s because it’s only accessible to Mind Mapping Insider members. If your job involves any aspect of information management, don’t miss it, because Ritter shares some valuable insights you can use in your job.

Why not make a commitment to become a more effective mind mapper – which will enable you to become a better planner, problem solver and project manager? Sign up today to join the growing group of MMI members who have made the decision to be more influential and creative in their jobs!